View the Latest Training and Events

View THWACK, our SolarWinds IT Community

Patch Manager is an industry favorite. Hands down.

“3rd-party patch management and reporting are the most important for us to maintain compliance. We are finding it could be helpful with future endeavors where we may need to deploy more individualized software packages on remote devices.”

Tom Kolbe

Virtualization Administrator

University of San Diego

“We were grossly unpatched on the 3rd-party side, and struggled to maintain Microsoft patches using WSUS. After going to SolarWinds® Patch Manager, we were able to shore up numerous issues and bring our systems to a better state.”

IT/Systems Administrator

Medium Enterprise Banking Company

“In the past, we would patch manually at each workstation during routine maintenance, at computer replacement, or in the case a severe vulnerability was found. I highly doubt we were doing an adequate job of all that before we applied the use of Patch Manager.”

IT Director

Medium Enterprise Media & Entertainment Company

“We installed Patch Manager side-by-side with our old solution and we found that most systems were missing 30-80 patches, despite showing that everything was up-to-date.”

Security Manager

Medium Enterprise Banking Company

“Prior to our use of SolarWinds Patch Manager, 3rd-party patches were not applied enterprise-wide. They were only applied to machines that experienced issues. Patch Manager has allowed us to consistently push patches out and ensure a stable and secure environment.”

Network Engineer

State & Local Government

“In the past, we were not easily able to deploy 3rd-party patches to clients. SolarWinds Patch Manager allowed integration into our current patching process and provided prepackaged updates for common applications.”

Security Analyst

Medium Enterprise Chemicals Company

FAQ: Questions, meet answers.

FAQ: Questions, meet answers.

Where can I find support information, training, onboarding, and technical documentation?

Where can I find information on installation and customization for my Patch Manager product?

Does SolarWinds offer training or certification for the Patch Manager product?

The Success Center is your home for onboarding, training, new user information, the product knowledge base, and official product documentation.

The customer portal is where you can submit a help desk ticket, find all of the information about the products you own, and see available hotfixes and upgrades as well as training opportunities for your products.

Submit a help desk ticket so that our team of support reps can assist you in getting your patch management software back up and running

Log in to your account to see all of your product information including licenses, renewal dates, downloads and upgrades, and hotfixes

Our New to Patch Manager section was created using customer feedback and contains videos, guides, and articles that will help you be more successful with your installation and customization.

SolarWinds offers an onboarding assistance program called Smart Start if you are looking for help getting Patch Manager set up and optimized. We will provide you with access to one of our implementation experts who will work with you to understand your goals, assist you in installing and configuring your product, and help you optimize your environment for how you need your business to run.

The SolarWinds Academy is a single location where you can find e-learning as well as instructor-led classes that will take you from the basics through optimization. We allow you to browse classes or, if you prefer, follow customized learning paths to keep you on the right track.

SolarWinds solutions are rooted in our deep connection to our user base in the THWACK® online community. More than 150,000 members are here to solve problems, share technology and best practices, and directly contribute to our product development process.

Software patching involves the acquisition, testing, and installing of code - known as a patch - into an executable program to provide an update, fix, or improved version of the program or its supporting data. Although software patching is critical for IT security, IT administrators that manage this process can spend an exorbitant amount of time manually applying and tracking patches across an entire IT infrastructure. Many choose, instead, to leverage patch management software to automate this process, not only for software patching, but to patch servers and workstations as well.

Benefits of security patch management using Patch Manager

Security patches released for Microsoft or third-party software, including Java patches, are important updates that need to be rolled out quickly to a select group of servers or workstations. Failed updates commonly occur when packages are not installed properly, leaving computers vulnerable to security threats. SolarWinds patch management software helps you proactively address known software vulnerabilities and security patch management, saving you weeks of time- and labor-intensive work.

Implementing security patch management

Patch Manager notifies you of all updates via email and the console window, and extends your existing Microsoft Windows Server Update Service (WSUS) or System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) environment to publish third-party updates as well. To simplify the patch process, the patch management software updates are categorized as security, critical, definition, third-party, and service pack updates. You can select the specific Microsoft or third-party update, approve it, and schedule or deploy the update to the select computer group or Active Directory organizational unit (OU).

How security patch management works

SolarWinds Patch Manager gives you control over the patch process by automating approval processes, shutdowns, reboots, defining the correct pre- and post-installation environment, and creating comprehensive reports. For example, after rolling out a critical security update, you can quickly run a Percent Failed or Percent Not Installed report to assess the patch status. This enables you to take swift and appropriate action to deal with any failed updates. Security patch management in your WSUS/SCCM environment can become more effective and less time-consuming and error-prone with Patch Manager.